Traditional wireless communication systems are half-duplex; that is, they are not capable of transmitting and receiving signals simultaneously on a single wireless communications channel. Recent work in the wireless communications field has led to advancements in developing full-duplex wireless communications systems; these systems, if implemented successfully, could provide enormous benefit to the wireless communications field. For example, the use of full-duplex communications by cellular networks could cut spectrum needs in half. One major roadblock to successful implementation of full-duplex communications is the problem of self-interference.
Many solutions to address self-interference rely on phase shifting circuits (e.g., as part of an analog self-interference canceller), but these solutions may suffer in performance due to constraints inherent in traditional phase shifting circuits. Thus, there is a need in the wireless communications field to create new and useful systems for analog phase shifting. This invention provides such new and useful systems.
Of course, such systems for analog phase shifting may find use in a wide variety of applications; for example, phased antenna arrays or any other beam-steering application.